With increasingly successful clinical trials, the use of prosthetic devices to replace the function of photoreceptors has now become a viable option to treat degenerative diseases of the retina, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and...

Human arylamine N-acetyltransferase 1 (NAT1) is a well-known phase II metabolic enzyme that has been associated with carcinogenesis. Its role in the biotransformation of aromatic and heterocyclic amine carcinogens has been investigated for many...

Breast cancer is a complex disease that involves genetic, epigenetic, and environmental components. High and moderate penetrant genes have been identified that affect risk to developing breast cancer; however, these risk alleles are present in a...

Premenopausal women have fewer and less severe strokes when compared to postmenopausal females and aged matched males. The most obvious factor that could account for the observed difference is the physiological activity of Estrogen. Numerous...

Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) is a 38-amino acid C-terminally α-amidated peptide that was first isolated from ovine hypothalamic extracts on the basis of its ability to stimulate cAMP production in anterior pituitary...

Ribosomal biogenesis failure may contribute to neurodegenerative diseases, while its excessive activation has been shown to drive tumor growth. As ribosomal production is initiated and regulated by the Pol1-mediated transcription of rRNA genes in...

Osteoporosis has become a growing health threat with rising social and economic consequences. The understanding of the relationship between bone mechanical strength and bone structural quality is important for the diagnosis of osteoporosis and the...

These studies set out to identify strategies to rescue and repair the adult nervous system. First, we investigated the role of ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) in 5HT1A receptor-induced neurogenesis in the rodent brain. Systemic treatment with an...

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) results in changes to the anatomical, neurochemical, and physiological properties of cells in the central and peripheral nervous system. Neurotrophins, acting by binding to their cognate Trk receptors on target...

Carbohydrate binding agents that target viral envelope glycans are being studied for their potential use as microbicides and antiviral therapeutics. Griffithsin is a lectin originally identified in a red alga Griffithisia sp. Multiple studies have...

Activity-based rehabilitation in the form of overground or body weight-supported treadmill (BWST) locomotor step training has become the most widely accepted therapy translated from preclinical animal research to spinal cord injury (SCI) patients....

Curcumin, a plant derived compound has shown significant potency against various chronic diseases like cancer in cell culture and animal studies. However, the introduction of this compound into clinical setting is limited by its poor oral...

It is not the primary purpose of this present work to treat the problem of the evolution of behavior, but rather to give an analysis of animal behavior as observed. These observations may appear as simple tests, but they make possible a new way to...

Spontaneous recovery in rats after spinal cord injury (SCI), and interventions that improve or impede spontaneous recovery are not well understood. During a study to characterize recovery landmarks after SCI using telemetry EMG, we discovered loss...

An increasing amount of healthcare resources is used for the treatment and prevention of contractures in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI), with stretch and passive movements remaining the most prominent intervention methods. The results of...

Cortical and tectal inputs to the caudal LPN in the rat were examined using anatomical and physiological techniques. Pyramidal cells in layer 6 of the visual cortex and wide-field vertical cells in the stratum opticum of the superior colliculus...

Green tea polyphenols (GTPs) are gaining increasing attention because of their potential anti-tumor effects. However, poor oral bioavailability limits their efficacy in vivo. In this dissertation, two hypotheses were tested: 1) GTPs administered...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a hypokinetic movement disorder resulting from the
progressive neurodegeneration of the dopaminergic nigrostriatal system in the brain and
the resulting imbalance between dopamine and acetylcholine in the basal ganglia...

Much work has been done in the past on the nutritional value in young life of different dairy products, all of which experiments have been carried to successful completion by various men at different times. There is, however, no published...